COOPERSTOWN _ The Garden Club of America has awarded the Lake and Valley Garden Club a $25,000 first prize for work on a buffer strip that protects Otsego Lake in Cooperstown.
The Founders' Fund Award is given annually by the national organization after a vote of its 197 member clubs, including the one based in Otsego County. The Lake and Valley Garden Club was recognized for planting blue arctic willow and other deep-rooted plants in a 70-foot-long bed in Lakefront Park.
The picturesque garden, where a raised wooden walkway meanders past boulders, benches and greenery, was designed by Suzanne Kingsley of Springfield Center, a former club president.
The project has been praised for its ecological, as well as its aesthetic, value.
``The buffer strip project is an innovative natural solution that will help protect both Otsego Lake and the 444-mile Susquehanna River ecosystem flowing through New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland,'' the national garden club noted in a statement.
The project, which the GCA calls ``a model for preservation of all lake and river shorelines,'' began more than two years ago as a small demonstration of how to protect the fragile shoreline in an area frequented by thousands of people, according to Paul Lord, president of the Otsego Lake Association.
Several organizations, including Cornell University, the Biological Field Station and Boy Scout Troop 1224 have worked to expand the buffer zone, and deep beds now stretch about 70 feet along the concrete wall that separates land and water.
Before the project began, waves from winds and boats would pound the wall, scouring under it, washing over it, carrying away soil and clouding the water.
``We put rip-rap along the wall so the water wouldn't slap on the wall, then we worked on the inside to hold the soil in place,'' he said.
A large area was dug down about eight inches, then six inches of top soil was added, Lord said. Willows and other species that can withstand a periodic dousing were planted, and the area between plants was filled in with mulch.
``Not all our plants made it, but we'll get more,'' Lord said.
Elaine Bresee of Milford Center, the Lake and Valley Garden Club's president, said the group will use its winnings to complete the project, building the buffer across the park to the docks at the Lakefront Motel.
Bresee noted that many people, club members and others, including Cooperstown Parks Commissioner Robert Busse, have contributed to the buffer. BOCES students built the handicapped accessible boardwalk and grew and planted some of the species used in 2007, she added.
``It shows what we can do when we work together,'' she said.
Lord said he hopes other lakeside residents will create environmentally sound shorelines along their parcels.
``What we need is a buffer around the whole lake,'' he said, noting that information on how to do so is available at www.otsegolakeassociation.org.
Print this story
E-mail this story
